self-driving – Nerdisthttp://nerdist.com
Fri, 09 Dec 2016 15:15:21 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.1They’re Making Drones That People Can Ride in Nowhttp://nerdist.com/drones-for-people-to-ride-in-ehang-184-ces-2016/
Thu, 07 Jan 2016 16:30:46 +0000http://nerdist.com/?p=352152Up until now, drones were defined by, among other characteristics, unmanned flight. But China’s EHang company has just introduced a vehicle at CES 2016 that blurs that definition significantly… and just might demand that we start using the term “quad-copter” more frequently to distinguish from military drones like the Predator. The single-seater EHang 184 is a being touted as the first human-carrying drone.

What’s more, the mechanism requires a great degree of faith from the rider, since he or she will not be able to control it while in flight beyond vocally announcing a destination. It can travel for up to 23 minutes at speeds up to 63 miles per hour. Once the EHang 184 (and how delightfully awkward would it have been to name it the 187?) reaches its ultimate goal, the drone theoretically finds a suitably sized parking space—depending on which city you’re in, that search alone could take 23 minutes.

So what happens if something goes wrong? If the propellers fail, the drone is (supposedly) capable able to make a safe, if rough, landing on only one of them. If the controls fail, a sort of centralized tech support will take over. EHang is sensitive to such concerns. The company’s CEO has had two friends die in air crashes, and he wants this vehicle to stop such things from happening again, as we see in EHang’s video demonstration:

Could we see these in our skies soon? The FAA has had no comment as yet, but a lengthy vetting process can almost certainly be expected. Meanwhile, I’d like to suggest another application: theme park rides. Imagine a roller coaster with no track, in mid air, where you have no idea when the drops are coming, and the ride path could be different each time.

Better work on some autonomous vomit-cleaners too, methinks.

Would you trust this vehicle with your life? What changes would it take, if any? EHang needs to know, and we’d like to hear, in comments below.

]]>Google’s Self Driving Car Hits the City Streetshttp://nerdist.com/googles-self-driving-car-hits-the-city-streets/
http://nerdist.com/googles-self-driving-car-hits-the-city-streets/#commentsThu, 01 May 2014 20:30:06 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=138706Google’s self driving cars have already logged a lengthy 700,000 miles on open rural highways, but now they are setting their sights on the far more hazard-laden city streets.

“A mile of city driving is much more complex than a mile of freeway driving, with hundreds of different objects moving according to different rules of the road in a small area,” said Chris Urmson, who is the head of Google’s self-driving-car project. Google engineers have modified the car’s software to recognize and respond to pedestrians, buses, and stop signs. The cars can even pick out something as subtle as a cyclist making a hand signal.

The video below shows how the car can safely navigate around a construction zone, cross a rail road intersection, and not have a panic attack when trying to make a right turn while surrounded by pedestrians and cyclists:

Driverless cars first became street legal in Nevada back in 2011. Since then, the only reported accidents happened when a human driver had taken the wheel or when another other driver was at fault. Technicians stress how the car can be simultaneously aware of far more elements of the road than a human possibly could. Additionally, unlike a human, the car won’t get distracted, no matter how en fuego that babe on the sidewalk is. Naturally, there are still some challenges associated with driverless cars, including who would be responsible should there be an accident. The car owner? The manufacturer? Just imagine trying to argue with a car over whether or not you should get insurance companies involved.

The city driving tests were held in Mountain View, CA, a city whose traffic is pretty tame compared to the etiquette-free streets of New York or the matrix of cow paths that is urban Boston. Do you think these cars will someday manage in even the most complicated of driving scenarios, or are their roadways that even a computer could never decode? Tell us below.

]]>http://nerdist.com/googles-self-driving-car-hits-the-city-streets/feed/1CES: BMW Teaches its Self-Driving Car to Tokyo Drifthttp://nerdist.com/ces-bmw-teaches-its-self-driving-car-to-tokyo-drift/
http://nerdist.com/ces-bmw-teaches-its-self-driving-car-to-tokyo-drift/#commentsWed, 08 Jan 2014 20:30:42 +0000http://www.nerdist.com/?p=104623While one of the hottest debates coming out of CES is whether automobile manufacturers will adopt iOS or Android for their on-board computer systems, we were too busy picking our jaws up from the floor after watching BMW’s latest demo of its new self-driving car. BMW is asserting that when it comes to the rise of the machines, they’ll be Ultimate Driving Machines capable of operating themselves and, yes, drifting like they’re playing for pink slips. The German manufacturer showed off a modified 2-Series Coupe and 6-Series Gran Coupe, which are capable of speeding around a race track at high speeds and sliding around corners like they’re trying to avoid a red shell in Double Dash.

In a statement, BMW explained, “The prototype can pilot its way at high speeds and with exceptional precision on a slalom run between cones, adheres to a marked out circular course regardless of the friction coefficient of the road surface and executes an obstacle-evading lane change to perfection.”

These cars mark the latest generation of BMW’s autonomous driving technology, using a LIDAR system, ultrasonic sensors, 360-degree radar, and cameras to track and map out the environment. Thanks to the electronic braking, steering, and throttle control systems that come standard on all new BMWs, these prototypes are capable of making accurate lane changes, navigating through a slalom course at high speeds, slide around corners and more — all without the driver lifting a finger.

According to Wired, BMW has been putting the new suite of systems through its paces in Germany for nearly a year now, racking up 9,000 miles of real-world driving time in cities and on the Autobahn, keeping pace with its infamous 80 mph traffic. Considering that braking is the Butterfly Effect that leads to traffic jams, switching to automated, electronic automobiles could help alleviate overstuffed roads around major metropolitan areas. Unfortunately, there’s no word yet on whether they’ll come equipped with a road rage module as well.

Are you excited for driverless cars or terrified by them? Let us know in the comments below.

We’ve been hearing about self-driving cars forever, but it’s only when seeing one in action that the enormity of the technological achievement sinks in. Google has been testing these things for the last couple of years, and they’ve released this video of Steve Mahan taking one of Google’s self-driving Priuses out for a few errands, including the drive-thru at a taco shop, which is amazing enough as it is but is moreso because Steve happens to be visually impaired — 95% of his vision is gone. He talks about how losing one’s sight takes away independence and something like this can bring a lot of that back. That’s huge.

In this trial, he wasn’t alone — he had people in the car with him using laptops to operate the thing — but we’re getting closer and closer to something like this being available. Before then, there are obviously a lot of issues to work out, including safety, and the technology isn’t exactly off-the-shelf yet. But this is further along than you might expect.